Ireland 2016

[Greg]

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

That was *lovely*! Thanks, G-Man!

[Drunk Monk]

álainn!


I got some Kerrygold Cheddar and Blarney Castle, plus some Teelings at home.

Oh wait... Am I culturally appropriating?

[Greg]

Blarney Castle what? Or is it just Blarney?

[Drunk Monk]

Which wouldn't be cultural appropriation?

[King Bob]

Christina's making a corned beef and her excellent soda bread. She won't eat much of either, so I'll have them both for a few days.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

My regular cafe (Andytown) out here in the Sunset is owned by a nice young couple; she’s a Yank, but he is from Northern Ireland. They have food at the cafe and tomorrow they are doing sausage rolls all day. Soda farl and heavy brown wheaten bread are every day things for them, but the sausage rolls....!

They make their own butter, too.

ANd the coffee rocks.

[King Bob]

Off topic, but I didn't know that's your hood. You're near Polly Ann Ice Cream. They used to have a great lemon with chocolate pieces.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Still on topic because Andytown does mash-ups with Polly Ann now and then. 

The West Side of The City is a great place to be an adult. Clean, quiet, interesting stuff going on, but the actual shrieking freak quotient is very low. Ocean breezes, decent street parking...Paradise! Utterly lacking in glitz and pretention.

---

OK, now *that* was off-topic.

[Drunk Monk]

Sure

Bit Shrieking Freak is a great band name.

[Greg]

I'm off to Lisdoonvarna
At the end of the year.
I'm off for a bit of craic
The women and the beer.
I'm awfully shifty
For a man of Fifty
Catch me if you can
Me name is Dan.
Sure I'm your man.

[Greg]

Punjab Paddy!

[Greg]

I win this St. Patrick's Day. Kerrygold USA liked my tweet about having Kerrygold in the house.

[Drunk Monk]

I win this St. Patrick's Day. Kerrygold USA liked my tweet about having Kerrygold in the house.

FTW!

Well, it is in your blood. 

Luv my Kerrygold. I'm gonna follow them on Twit now.

---

Woah, there's an IRE and a USA version. I only followed the USA one. I follow some Irish Whiskey feeds and they always just make me long for Dublin...

[Greg]

Just had my morning break with more brown bread and Kerrygold. And what's this Blarney cheese from Kerrygold? Blarney is in County Cork, not Kerry.

But I have a confession. For the longest time, I have mocked people who celebrated St. Patrick's Day with Corned Beef and Cabbage. I did this for multiple reasons. First, people in Ireland do not eat Corned Beef and Cabbage. It's an American tradition arising from the slums of Boston and New York. It was the cheapest piece of meat they could afford, purchasing it mainly from the Jewish Delis in their neighborhoods. After my first journey to Ireland I adopted the ways of my people. Although, they do sell the dish now in Ireland for the Americans. Secondly, and probably more importantly, it's a terrible tasting dish. This probably had a lot to do with my mother's cooking. She was not a good cook. And like many of her dishes, this was another travesty tradition that was feared in the Lynch household year after year. At least by me.

So, I probably haven't had Corned Beef in 40 years or so. Until this St. Patrick's Day. tQ and I wanted some Irish meat. We wanted Irish sausage. And while we could have bought them, the price with shipping was about $50. We both thought that a bit exorbitant. I suggested when we did our Saturday shopping that maybe it was time to revisit Corned Beef. tQ had only had cold slices of it in the Deli and I was me.

We bought it. I cooked it. Surprise. Surprise. It was quite tasty. I am ready to embrace my Irish American roots and serve this on the Day.

I also saw quite a bit of The Quiet Man last night.